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What do business mogul Sir Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, and JetBlue founder David Neeleman, have in common? Well, besides being monumentally successful, they all have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and, like other entrepreneurs and CEOs, some will even tell you that they are successful largely because of the “diagnosis”, not in spite of it.

They may well be onto something. At a time when health care professionals are over prescribing stimulants like Ritalin, medicating the so-called “symptoms” of ADHD out of existence, it’s worth noting that some of the trait’s most common characteristics – creativity, multi-tasking, risk-taking, high energy and even resilience-- are, in fact, strengths when leveraged in the right way and in the right career. It’s why so many high profile achievers are beginning to publicly embrace their diagnoses of ADHD.

Of course in our over-diagnosed, over-medicated culture, we choose to only focus on the negative aspects of ADHD, which include procrastination, inability to concentrate, forgetfulness, disorganization and easily distracted. One easy way to think about ADHD is having a low boredom threshold (no, this is not the cause). Those with the trait become frustrated with routine, whether that includes sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day, or spending time chained to a desk at the office performing routine tasks. But there is so much more to this trait that can be leveraged to an advantage. ADHDers are often at their best in crisis mode, multi-tasking and free associating to intuitively reach a solution. And if they find something they truly love to do, they are able to focus for hours on end.

“If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADD (the original name for what is now called ADHD), I would take ADD,” Neeleman told ADDitude Magazine, “I can distill complicated facts and come up with simple solutions. I can look out on an industry with all kinds of problems and say, 'How can I do this better?' My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things.”

Neeleman even went on to say that if there was a pill he could take to make it go away, he’d refuse to take it, because he wouldn’t be where he is today without it, and there is some science to back him on this point. Some research has suggested that a tendency to be self-employed and an entrepreneur is dominant in individuals with ADHD. One U.K. study of note found a genetic link between a dopamine receptor gene variation associated with ADHD and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. Sensation seeking, common in ADHD is more common among entrepreneurs than in the general population and anecdotal reports bolster this point, saying that people with ADHD are three times more likely to own their own business.

It makes sense. Besides being easily bored with routine and the status quo, those with the ADHD trait tend to thrive in times of crisis. Those with ADHD in pre-historic times were constantly looking for new hunting grounds, water supplies and sites for a new place to settle. Village life made them restless, so they felt the urge to keep moving. In fact the gene associated with ADHD is sometimes called the “explorer gene”.

It takes an adventurous spirit, to strike out on your own. Entrepreneurship fits perfectly with the ADHDer's need for stimulation and a willingness to take risks. The greatest success stories in business took a leap based on what they saw in the marketplace at a particular moment in time. Rejecting solutions that seemed to be “normal”, they instead trusted their instincts and forged ahead with something new and unproven while their more risk-averse peers shook their heads and insisted it would never work.

These ADHD entrepreneurs are also creative, with high-energy and an ability to hyper-focus on something they find innately interesting. This gives them the ability to spend limitless amounts of time accomplishing any task necessary to take their business to the next level. They thrive under pressure or, as ADHD entrepreneur and career coach Laurie Dupar puts it, the ADHDer “eats chaos for breakfast”.